Jets Nation Recap: Ducks shoot Jets down in opening playoff game

Welcome to the playoffs Winnipeg.

In what was a very underwhelming night where the Winnipeg Jets were almost immediately outplayed by the Anaheim Ducks, Winnipeg suffered it’s first NHL playoff loss in many, many years.

The Jets and Ducks traded goals early in the first two minutes, with the scoring coming from Sam Vatanen and Adam Lowry. After the first two goals the game tightened up a bit, and the physicality went up a lot.

The second period only saw one goal, coming from the stick of Drew Stafford. The Jets picked up the lead and some were starting to get optimistic about the Jets…

…and then came the third. Late in the second the Ducks started to really pick up the pace and they did not slow down. Two goals from Corey Perry and a goal from Ryan Getzlaf and the Jets were out of luck.

Let’s break it down.

Bad Discipline – There were calls missed, on both sides. That’s the way the playoffs work. The refs allow less, but teams try to get away with more, so there is actually an increase in penalties per minute in the post-season relative to the regular season. Besides, it’s like your dad always told you: you can’t control the referees, but you can control what you do. Jets need to be more disciplined.

Bad 5v5 Play – Ouch. That was one of the worst games the Jets have played 5v5 all year. The Jets, normally a dominant team at evens, allowed the Ducks to control the game. They were out attempted 27-14 at evens in the 2nd and 10-5 in the third.

No Where to Go But Up – The Jets played terrible. You are not going to win many games getting outplayed like the Jets did, and you will win none of them if your goalie puts up a 0.879 save percentage. Luckily the Jets do not normally get out played like this and it is unlikely to happen again anytime soon.

Individual scoring chances (iSC), shot attempt differential (Corsi +/-), non-blocked shot attempt differential (Fen +/-), and offensive zone face off as percentage of all non-neutral zone face-offs:

Shot attempt chart for all minutes:

(Courtesy: hockeystats.ca)

Shot location chart:

(Courtesy: war-on-ice)

Next time?